When a person takes psychoactive drugs, the experience is heavily influenced by their surroundings and frame of mind. Sage advice often repeated to first-time users is to focus on the “set and setting,” referring to one’s mindset and social surroundings as key components of a successful trip.
New research looking at yoga and cannabis use seems to back up that idea. A dissertation recently published with the University of British Columbia examined the impact of “contextual factors during cannabis use” on the outcomes of a patient’s well-being. Author Sarah Elizabeth Ann Daniels measured how the set and setting of a yoga class affected a person’s cannabis experience.
“In studies of other psychoactive drugs used therapeutically (i.e., psychedelics) there is considerable attendance to extra-pharmacological factors during the drug experience, as it is well-known that such contextual factors can significantly impact clinical outcomes,” Daniels wrote in her dissertation’s abstract.
Could those same contextual factors similarly affect the outcome of a person’s therapeutic cannabis experience?
Daniels designed a study to find out. She recruited nearly 50 participants who would self-administer cannabis twice, one week apart. One session involved practicing yoga while high. The other was spent doing whatever the participants normally did when using cannabis, like eating, watching TV or socializing. The participants would then score their experience on things like “state mindfulness,” “mysticality of experience,” and “state affect.”
The results unequivocally suggested that yoga helped improve the quality of the cannabis experience on all those fronts. The most commonly reported outcome of combining yoga with cannabis use, according to respondents, was an “enhanced physical awareness.”
“For example, participants reported they were more ‘in touch’ or ‘in tune’ with their body and their body’s needs, and felt their body, sensations, and sense of movement on a ‘deeper’ level,” Daniels wrote in her study.
Respondents said this experience was not typical of their normal ‘sober’ experiences with yoga and that it represented a positive change or gain. More than 70% said they would combine cannabis and yoga again following the study.
Cannabis and yoga have a long history of use together going back thousands of years to ancient India (Weed Between the Lines, “Ganja Asana,” December 10, 2020). And here in Colorado, there are now numerous businesses capitalizing on the dynamic duo: Bend & Blaze, Ganja Asana and Twisted Sister Yoga, to name a few.
So it should come as no real surprise that the yoga experience can be enhanced by cannabis use (at least subjectively). But these results also suggest that the reverse is true, that the cannabis experience can be enhanced with yoga — speaking to the importance of set and setting. When the study’s respondents were in a safe space, mentally focused and mindfully moving, their high was better, more enjoyable and more remedial.
“These findings suggest that paying attention to contextual factors and providing guidelines for therapeutic cannabis users may improve clinical outcomes when using cannabis to support mental health and well-being,” Daniels wrote.
Daniels’ research could also help scientists and therapists better tap into the potential usefulness of cannabis as a therapeutic drug. Because so many patients use cannabis to manage anxiety, this knowledge could be useful for both cannabis users and therapy facilitators.
“Providing specific behavioral directions as well as psychoeducation on the role of set and setting may stand to maximize benefits and minimize harms of therapeutic cannabis use,” Daniels wrote. “Based on the high degree of acceptability of the yoga intervention, yoga or similar mindful movement may be a useful recommendation.”
It could also be helpful information for psychedelic-assisted therapy providers, Daniels notes, adding more evidence to support the importance of set and setting to help patients get the most benefit out of a psychedelic experience.
